Sequester Likely to Survive Budget Battle

Automatic Spending Cuts Continue Amid a Series of Fiscal Fights; House GOP Views It as a 'Huge Victory'

By

John D. McKinnon And

Kristina Peterson

Sept. 30, 2013 6:58 p.m. ET

The budget battle in Congress might be messy, but when the smoke clears what's likely to emerge is a bill that keeps the government on a path toward ever smaller levels of annual spending.

The automatic spending cuts that Congress adopted in 2011 for the coming decade, known as sequester, so far are surviving a series of fiscal fights, despite pressure from some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to replace them. Whatever bill emerges to keep the government open likely won't knock that trajectory off track. The cuts...